IRISH BEAUTY – The St. Mary Advocates of Hoboken celebrated St. Patrick and St. Joseph days with entertainment by the young ladies of the Kerri Smith Academy of Irish Dance. Standing left to right are President Patricia Pope, Vice-President Joan Quigley, Bob Cheneski, Secretary Josephine DeGennaro, and Lucille Casulli. Kerri Smith is shown with her dancers.

Featuring over 300 artists, sculptors, photographers and local crafters, as well as rides, games, face painting, local businesses, restaurants, food vendors, and much more, the 20th Anniversary Hoboken Spring Arts & Music Festival is set to kick off on Sunday, May 4 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free. Sponsors for the day include the Hoboken Reporter, United Water, Carepoint, WFUV, and others.

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes are scheduled to perform their blend of rock, rythym, and blues on the Observer Stage from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m.

Taking place on Washington Street between Observer Highway and Seventh Street, the fair features three stages for live music and a special section for children with rides, games, creative activities, face painting, sand art, and more.

Other musical acts scheduled to appear include Frankie Morales & the Mambo of the Times Orchestra, The Black Hollies, Karyn Kuhl Band, The Coffin Daggers, Overlake, Of the Sea, Liam Brown & the Pounds, “D” Plumbers, Preschool of Rock, and Mad Science.

Car dealers will be displaying new models on First Street between Washington and Bloomfield Streets.

Volunteers are needed to help with vendor setup the morning of the event from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Anyone interested in helping should contact Geri Fallo in the Cultural Affairs Office at (201) 420-2207 or gfallo@hobokennj.org.

The fair will be located three blocks from all public transportation: PATH, NJ Transit Trains & buses, NY Waterway Ferries and the Hudson Bergen Light Rail. For details, visit: www.hobokennj.org/visit/how-to-get-here.

For more info call (201) 420-2207 or email gfallo@hobokennj.org. For updates, visit: www.hobokennj.org/departments/human-services/cultural-affairs/arts-music-festival.

Hoboken security cameras haven’t worked since 2010, including two on the waterfront where missing jogger disappeared

A network of city-owned security cameras deployed around town in 2004, including two on the waterfront where a 27-year-old jogger disappeared on Sunday, stopped working in 2010 after the city failed to renew its contract with the camera’s operators, according to a report on NBC. Apparently, the city has not replaced or restored the cameras in four years.

The cameras went offline after the city decided to not continue paying the manufacturer, PackeTalk, to maintain the system. The decision was apparently at the behest of a state fiscal monitor who had control of the city’s finances at the time, said city spokesman Juan Melli. Melli also told NBC that an engineer brought in to look at the cameras said they weren’t worth maintaining.

The same company has installed cameras in several nearby towns like Guttenberg, and they have helped the police catch criminals.

It’s possible that if the cameras had been in operation, they might now be able to help police trace the movements of the missing jogger, Andrew Jarzyk, on Sunday night. A private security camera caught Jarzyk running onto Pier A Park at 2:09 a.m. this past Sunday, and that was the last sighting.

Neither Melli nor PackeTalk’s founder, Tamer Zachary, could tell NBC why the cameras were not replaced. The report said that between 2004 and 2009, the city paid the company between $30,000 and $40,000 a year to maintain them.

“They always paid for the cameras through grants but when it came time to pay their maintenance fees, they decided to stop paying,” Zachary told NBC, adding that he wasn’t sure why the city stopped paying.

Melli said the city is working on procuring a new security camera system. The system could be funded by a FEMA Port Security grant if the city council votes to accept the grant at an upcoming meeting.

Melli said that the city began applying for grants to replace the cameras soon after the old contract ended.

“We started applying for grants in 2010. It’s not that we haven’t made it a priority,” he said.

Billboard posted in search for missing jogger

Last week was week two of a search for missing Hoboken resident Andrew Jarzyk, 27, who disappeared in the wee hours of Sunday morning, March 30. After a Saturday night drinking with friends at the West Five Supper Club on Monroe Street, he left the bar around 1 a.m. Sunday, changed into jogging clothes two blocks away at his apartment, and jogged west to the Hoboken waterfront.

He was seen on videotapes from local businesses at 2:09 a.m. jogging southbound past Pier C Park, and then at 2:11 a.m. jogging onto Pier A Park, which is the southernmost park on the waterfront. The pier’s periphery is a popular jogging route and has a sturdy fence all the way around (see video of route posted at hudsonreporter.com).

The police were unable to locate video of Jarzyk leaving Pier A. If he did return from the pier, he could have continued jogging along the waterfront walkway into the Newport section of Jersey City, or turned west or north to head home.

He has been described as a kind, sweet person with a good sense of humor, who sometimes dressed in a beaver costume just to make people laugh.

Relatives have posted a billboard on Route 78 in Millburn and offered a $10,000 for information leading to their beloved family member and friend. They are asking for other people to donate space for a billboard, too.

Jarzyk is described as 6 feet 2 inches tall and 175 pounds with a tall, slender build. He is Caucasian with blonde hair and blue eyes.

If you have information, call (201) 420-2110.

Watch our breaking news website for updates, hudsonreporter.com.

CarePoint funds projects to help young people and seniors

The CarePoint Health Foundation has awarded three local organizations $5,000 each to fund important projects to help young people and senior citizens in Hudson County. The three non-profit groups that received the donations were AngelaCARES, Concordia Learning Center and New City Kids. The donations represent a commitment on the part of CarePoint Health to reach out to the needs of patients and families in the communities served by Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital, and Hoboken University Medical Center.

AngelaCARES, serves young people and senior citizens and is headquartered in Jersey City. Their Here4Seniors program provides direct services and wellness workshops to Hudson County seniors. Their programs include Thanksgiving dinners for the homebound, a yearly “Senior Prom,” and walking groups to encourage activity and socialization. Their workshops and seminars offer topics of interest to seniors including “Addiction and the Older Adult” and “Understanding the Changes Associated with Aging.”

Concordia Learning Center, located in Jersey City at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind, provides specialized services for children with multiple disabilities and is the only school for the blind in New Jersey. The CarePoint Health Foundation funded support for an on-line, ‘cloud-based’ standards-based curriculum for students with special needs. Individualized assessment tools, goals and resulting work plans are aligned with the Common Core Standards and the materials are adapted by the teachers to meet the needs of their students and families.

The mission of New City Kids, established in 2000 in Jersey City, is “Loving Kids for Change.” Their programs, including the After School Program for Academic Excellence, Teen Life Internship Program, summer camp and City Sail, are for children aged six through eighteen. Over the past six years, 90 percent of New City Kids alumni attended college or have graduated.

First event of annual program of Hudson River ‘Walk the Walkway’ is April 27

The Hudson River Waterfront Conservancy (HRWC) has announced the fourth annual “Walk the Walkway” series on the Hudson River Walkway. The first of seven walks will occur on Sunday, April 27 and will last about two hours. Participants meet in the South Cove Plaza Parking lot at 1 Le Fante Way off Route 440 in Bayonne. A donation of $5 is suggested. Pre-registration is also suggested but is not required. A total of seven events will occur this year each featuring two to three miles of easy pacing. In addition to Bayonne, walks will also occur in Edgewater, Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken.

The Hudson River Walkway runs along the Hudson River Waterfront through nine communities in Hudson and Bergen counties. It extends from the Bayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee. The 18.5 linear mile walkway is 85 percent complete. Mile-long sections are complete in Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, West New York and North Bergen. New segments of the walkway are under construction in Jersey City, Edgewater, North Bergen and Guttenberg. Reconstruction of damages from Hurricane Sandy is continuing in Edgewater.

Go to www.hudsonriverwaterfront.org to register and for details about the other events or contact Don Stitzenberg at destitz@yahoo.com or call (201) 519-7057.

Reuters expands space in Hoboken’s Waterfront Corporate Center Media giant Thomson Reuters is expanding its Hoboken offices in SJP Properties’ Waterfront Corporate Center II. SJP announced on Thursday that Reuters will relocate 450 employees from New York City. Thomson Reuters signed a 72,000 square foot lease expansion at the building, one of three Class A office and retail buildings within SJP’s high-performance, mixed-use business complex in Hoboken.

SJP will oversee the build-out of Thomson Reuters’ expansion space to a total of 93,000 square feet. The company is expected to take occupancy of its new space during the third quarter of the year.